


The View

by Flufferdoodle



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:14:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25275994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flufferdoodle/pseuds/Flufferdoodle
Summary: Five times Red doesn't feel realPlus one he might
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	The View

_-1-_

Red studies the Charmander before him, marveling at its shiny orange coloring and bright, flaming tail. It feels sturdy and strong and otherworldly, still grounded in a way Red never could be. Blue turns to him, Squirtle in arms, and challenges him to a battle.

The words float through Red, and he finds his body moving into position, the faithful Charmander standing before him. He opens his mouth, but as usual, no words come out. He is a silent observer.

Charmander wins the battle with ease, Red feeling the world through his Pokémon.

One day, maybe, he’ll help him win.

_-2-_

Pikachu shocks him, but Red doesn’t really feel it. It’s just a brief sensation, but Red’s mind is far away. He doesn’t make eye contact with the electric mouse, but he doesn’t need to. Pikachu can fight on his own, too. They all can. Red is unnecessary, because he isn’t real.

He feels the battles, but he’s not in them. It’s the same way that he listens to conversations and watches interactions, all just beyond an invisible veil.

He watches Pikachu bring down a flock of Spearow, and Pikachu turns to him.

Red keeps his gaze down on the ground.

_-3-_

Red would be scared, walking through the darkness of Mt. Moon with Team Rocket lurking about, but he’s just a ghost. People see him, challenge him, but he doesn’t feel any of it. He sends out Pikachu or Charmander and they take care of it. They _can_ take care of it, because they have substance. Their physical body is attached to their mind, and Red feels like his empty conscience is somehow attached to them.

He finds himself seeking battles, because that’s when he’s the most present. The closest to existing.

Not in his body, of course. He’s in theirs.

_-4-_

Pokémon Tower felt as empty and disappointing as Red. He wasn’t sure why he thought that being surrounded by ghosts would awaken something in him, connect with him in a way that the living world never did, but he feels nothing as unidentified beings scare his Pokémon out of battle.

Fighting Blue, though, feels like a dream. Or maybe everything else is the dream, and fighting Blue is real. Red isn’t sure. He’s never known the difference.

He should probably feel something when Marowak moves on. He should feel despair, but despair isn’t too far from empty, which he is.

_-5-_

Blue is radiating so much emotion, standing before him on the battlefield, and Red would give anything to feel it. To open up his soul and let the anger, the frustration, the hurt all in.

Red is the youngest champion in the world, and Professor Oak is congratulating him, Lance is beaming, his mom is crying, everyone is there and real and present. They are all feeling. Feeling so much as if to make up for the fact that Red feels nothing.

It is the sweetest form of torture.

Pikachu shoves his face into Red’s neck as he walks away.

_-0-_

Mount Silver waits, cold and empty. The wind bites into his skin, and Red begs the sensation to take him away. He lays on top of the sharp, icy snow, staring up into the gray sky, and his emptiness feels exposed to the world.

Here, he has nobody to reflect. No mannerisms to quietly copy, no words to mimic and memorize, no people who feel reality in a way he never could.

Charizard wraps around him as the sun sets, Pikachu on his shoulder, and Red wonders if existing was truly necessary to love the view laid out before him.


End file.
